Vol. 1 No. 1 (2024)
Navigating Post-Conflict Reconstruction: A Systematic Review of Business Challenges and Opportunities in Comoros (2010–2025)
Abstract
This systematic literature review synthesises scholarly and grey literature from 2010 to 2024 to analyse the distinct business environment in Comoros during its post-conflict reconstruction phase. The study defines ‘post-conflict’ in this context as the period following the 2001 reconciliation agreement, characterised by ongoing political stabilisation and socio-economic rebuilding. It addresses a critical gap in African business studies concerning the commercial realities of small island developing states (SIDS) recovering from conflict. Employing the PRISMA framework, a rigorous search strategy was executed across Scopus, Web of Science, and grey literature databases using targeted search strings. Screening against pre-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria and quality assessment yielded a final corpus for analysis. Thematic synthesis of the included studies reveals that businesses contend with profound, interconnected challenges: fragmented infrastructure, constrained access to finance, and weak institutional governance, all exacerbated by geographic isolation. Conversely, the review identifies significant opportunities anchored in community resilience, the nascent potential for sustainable tourism, and niche agricultural exports, particularly within the vanilla and ylang-ylang value chains. The synthesis contributes to a nuanced, evidence-based understanding essential for formulating context-sensitive policy and business strategies. It underscores the imperative for governance structures that actively foster an enabling environment for inclusive economic participation, thereby ensuring reconstruction translates into sustainable and equitable development for Comorian society.
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